Langone, the Home Depot founder who is leading the push to raise $180 million to give New York City’sSt. Patrick’s Cathedral a facelift, said at least one seven-figure donor is reluctant to give financial aid to the church following the pontiff’s comments, according to CNBC.

The pope angered capitalists in the U.S. and around the world with his attack in November on trickle-down economics, which he said leads to a “culture of prosperity” that makes the rich richer and the poor poorer.

Langone, who calls himself a devout Catholic and prays every morning, told CNBC he had brought up the problem a couple of times with Dolan.

“I’ve told the cardinal, ‘Your Eminence, this is one more hurdle I hope we don’t have to deal with. You want to be careful about generalities. Rich people in one country don’t act the same as rich people in another country,'” Langone said.

The pope made his comments about capitalism during his first “exhortation”, a 224-page document that appeared to vilify the rich while attacking “an economy of exclusion and inequality” resulting from “the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation.”

The pope also lambasted the “idolatry of money” and called capitalism “the new tyranny,” adding that in many cases the wealthy were “incapable of feeling compassion for the poor.”

In response to Langone’s comments, Dolan told CNBC that the Pope Francis’ message had been misinterpreted. He said he told Langone, “Well, Ken, that would be a misunderstanding of the Holy Father‘s message. The pope loves poor people. He also loves rich people. ‘Ken, thanks for bringing it to my attention. We’ve gotta correct to make sure this gentleman understands the Holy Father’s message properly.’ And then I think he’s gonna say, ‘Oh, OK. If that’s the case, count me in for St. Patrick’s Cathedral.'”

Dolan added that in his conversations with the pope, he had praised Americans for their spirit of giving.

“In the one long sit-down that I had with him, the Holy Father told me that he has a lot of gratitude for the generosity of the Catholic Church in the United States. He’s aware of our help to the missions, to the poor of the world, to international development, to peace . . . and justice.”

Still, Langone urged the pope “to celebrate a positive point of view rather than focusing on the negative.” He also that “there is no nation on earth that is so forthcoming, so giving” as the United States.

According to CNBC, the U.S. ranks No. 1 in the Charities Aid Foundation’s most recent World Giving Index.

The Vatican felt compelled on Tuesday to deny that Pope Francis had “abolished sin“, after a well-known Italian intellectual wrote that he had effectively done so through his words and gestures.

The singular exchange began on Sunday when Eugenio Scalfari, an atheist who writes opinion pieces for the left-leaningLa Repubblica newspaper, published an article titled “Francis’ Revolution: He has abolished sin”.

Scalfari, who held a long private conversation with the pope earlier this year and wrote about it several times, concluded in the complex, treatise-like article that Francis believed sin effectively no longer existed because God’s mercy and forgiveness were “eternal”.

“I want to warn people that I think he [the pope] is right when he says he’s not the judge,” Rev. Graham, the head of his father’s ministry, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday, adding: “He’s not the judge. God is the judge.”

“God would have to shift — and God doesn’t. God’s word is the same, yesterday and today and a million years from now. It’s a sin. I know the consequences of what will happen one day when they stand before God.”

Franklin also said on the program that his 95-year-old father is still “very weak.”

“His vitals are good, blood pressure, heart rate, these things are good. And he’s eating a little bit, but he’s just extremely weak. So I’ve asked people to pray. People who are watching this program, I hope they would pray for him. He would appreciate it very much.”

Billy Graham has been battling to regain his strength since celebrating his birthday last month by posting a personal, 30-minute video message online called “My Hope America,” which was described by some as possibly his final sermon.

“I want to warn people that I think he (the pope) is right when he says he’s not the judge,” Rev. Graham, the head of his father’s ministry, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday, adding: “He’s not the judge. God is the judge.”

“God would have to shift — and God doesn’t. “God’s word is the same, yesterday and today and a million years from now. It’s a sin. I know the consequences of what will happen one day when they stand before God.”

Franklin also said on the program that his 95-year-old father is still “very weak.”

“His vitals are good, blood pressure, heart rate, these things are good. And he’s eating a little bit, but he’s just extremely weak. So I’ve asked people to pray. People who are watching this program, I hope they would pray for him. He would appreciate it very much.”

Billy Graham has been battling to regain his strength since celebrating his birthday last month by posting a personal, 30-minute video message online called “My Hope America,” which was described by some as possibly his final sermon.

The political right is overreacting in its criticism of Pope Francis, said a prominent Catholic theologian who predicted the pontiff’s economic views would become more friendly toward capitalism.

“I’m very enthusiastic” about the Pope, author Michael Novak said on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt,” airing this weekend. “He’s concentrated on the basics. Love, care for the poor, humility, kindness. And those are what matter, really. The rest is housekeeping.”

Novak, whose latest book is called “Writing from Left to Right: My Journey from Liberal to Conservative,” questioned some conservatives’ criticism that has been directed at Pope Francis. Radio commentator Rush Limbaugh, who isn’t Catholic, called the Pope’s comments about economic inequality and the need for regulation “just pure Marxism.”

“Rush doesn’t understand the Catholic part of it and he’s taking it seriously,” Novak said. “Give the guy a chance to get his feet on the ground, get his arms around the questions of globalization, get his arms around the fact that capitalism is mostly ideas.”

While reiterating church teaching on social issues like abortion, Pope Francis has elevated economic issues to prominence since succeeding Pope Benedict XVI in March. In November, he urged governments to stand up to the wealthy and criticized the theory that policies favoring the rich will eventually “trickle down” to help the poor.

“Today everything comes under the laws of competition and the survival of the fittest, where the powerful feed upon the powerless,” Francis said Nov. 26. “Such an economy kills.”

Novak said he didn’t agree with all of the Pope’s economic pronouncements and said that he wished the Pope wouldn’t say “some of the too simple things he says” in his speeches. “Priests, bishops are not trained to do economic analysis,” Novak said.

He suggested that Pope Francis’s views were shaped by his upbringing in Latin America, where social mobility isn’t as fluid as it is in the U.S. The pope was born in Argentina.

“I think he will begin to see the different economies of the world in a different light,” Novak said.

Novak also broke with others from his side of the political spectrum in calling on Congress to pass an immigration bill that addresses the status of an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants now in the U.S.

House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, won’t allow his chamber to vote on a Senate-passed bipartisan measure that offers a path to citizenship along with stronger border control measures.

“My family got here as immigrants, the wretched refuse of the Earth,” Novak said. “And so I’m grateful for that.”

The 77-year-old Argentine pope asked the crowd for a moment of silent prayer for “Christians who are unjustly accused and are subjected to every type of violence.”

Francis, celebrating his first Christmas season as pope, said “limitations and discrimination” against Christians was taking place not only in countries that do not grant full religious freedom but also where “on paper, freedom and human rights are protected.”

Francis did not name any countries but the Vatican has long urged Saudi Arabia, the site of Islam’s holiest places, to lift a ban on Christians worshiping in public.This year there have been a number of incidents of intolerance and attacks against minority Christians in Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Sudan, Nigeria, and other countries where their rights are guaranteed by law.

Francis, departing from his prepared text, said he was sure that Christians suffering from either discrimination or violence were “more numerous today than in he early times of the Church.”

In the past, the Vatican has also expressed concern over what former Pope Benedict called “sophisticated forms of hostility” against Christians in rich countries, such as restricting use of religious symbols in public places.

The pontiff has recently attacked “trickle-down economics, saying that the theory has never been confirmed by fact,” and “that it expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power.”

The pope also criticized “the idolatry of money” and slammed capitalism as a “new tyranny.”

Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh has already called Time’s “Person of the Year” a closet Marxist and now Republicans in Washington are taking aim at the pope, who took over the office in March.

New York Rep. Peter King, who went to a Catholic school and graduated from the University of Notre Dame’s law school, told Politico that the pope’s economic statements are demeaning.

King said that Francis uses the phrase “trickle-down” as a “pejorative” term, “like some liberal speechwriter stuck it in.” He said, “I genuinely believe (that) supply-side economics does more to help people come out of poverty, move up in the world.”

But King added, “On the other hand, we shouldn’t be dwelling on wealth. The guidance I’d take from this is, when I support conservative economics, I should do it in a way that helps the most people.”

Arizona Sen. John McCain said that, although he was “impressed” with the pope’s modern day outlook on social issues and helping the poor, “his economic perspective I’m not particularly enamored with.”

The pope maintains that he wants to de-emphasize the church’s position on issues like abortion and gay marriage and instead concentrate on more important problems such as helping the poor and the underprivileged.

Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, a Catholic who is considered a potential Republican presidential candidate in 2016, said that he did not believe that Francis was a Marxist. But he pointed out in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the pontiff’s background is rooted in the Peronist movement in Argentina, where the state took a leading role in the economy.

“The guy is from Argentina, they haven’t had real capitalism in Argentina,” Ryan said. “They have crony capitalism in Argentina. They don’t have a true free enterprise system.”

He added, “What I love about the pope is he is triggering the exact kind of dialogue we ought to be having.”

The pope’s economic opinions have also annoyed former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, a tea party favorite, who said Francis had made “some statements that to me sound kind of liberal.” But she later went back on that statement, according to Politico.

The pope, however, is taking all the criticism in his stride, especially from Rush Limbaugh. “The Marxist ideology is wrong,” he said. “But I have met many Marxists in my life who are good people, so I don’t feel offended.”